


Love Is A Choice Made Again And Again

by Kaiju_Baby



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Brief Archie/Betty, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 14:20:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10115120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiju_Baby/pseuds/Kaiju_Baby
Summary: Jughead thinks he knows how this story will unfold, with him only appearing in a few passing chapters of Betty's love life. But she makes choices he didn't see coming, and discovers he could be leading man material after all.





	

Jughead had never expected his relationship with Betty Cooper to last. He hadn't even dared to hope for it. As much as the golden girl might have done everything right to earn his trust, it simply wasn't in his nature to believe in such things. He was, after all, a teenaged transient. Everything about his life had taught him the law of impermanence, schooled him in the art of moving on.

He knew how to appreciate each thing as it came and went, and wasn't one to mourn his losses with overbearing grief. That's why he had treasured his time with Betty, but never tried to grasp her too tightly. They'd shared more kisses, more "moments", but he was never her boyfriend. A distinction like that would have felt clumsy and out of place in the shared reality of their lives, where murder and lies hid around every corner. Betty and Jughead had both understood their dynamic for what it was, what it should be, shared moments of passion between two friends whose level of comfort for each other had become intimate. 

What they had was natural and uncomplicated, and to try to define it and make rules and regulations to inforce its continuation would have been a sad mistake, one Jughead was relieved Betty had never tried to make. All he hoped for was that, when this aspect of their relationship eventually ran its course, they could continue on as friends with fond memories and no hard feelings.

Jughead was nothing if not observant, and so he was well aware of the signs as they came. He had his moments with Betty of course, but he was only one piece of her complex life. He knew she had her moments with others, with Veronica as the two girls' friendship grew only more resolute, with her mother as her loathing for the woman who birthed her was given more and more reason to grow.

And with Archie Andrews, the boy next door in both literal and archetypal fact.

After his initial rejection of her, the two had been sent down separate twisting paths, ones of growth and heartbreak and change. Betty appeared before Archie as a new woman, one who was no longer chasing after him, but dashing past as she pursued her own, far graver priorities. And Archie Andrews was only just starting to wake up to a world where he could appreciate this new incarnation of his blonde best friend. Jughead knew that any day now his old pal would realize Betty Cooper was not a fragile thing for him to tragically corrupt, but something far more complex and captivating.

It was inevitable that Archie would realize he wanted her, and Jughead held no delusions about being able to stand between their chemistry once it happened. He had his own style, his own edge, but it was nothing compared to the fae-like magnetism that surrounded Archie Andrews. Jughead wouldn't want Betty to deny her attraction, to repress something that was just as natural as the easy intimacy she and Jughead had shared. 

It would hurt. He wasn't a machine. But he knew how to process those unavoidable feelings, how to prioritize the big picture. He knew how to pack up his things, say goodbye, and find whatever came next for him.

He doubted anything would ever be as perfect as Betty Cooper. But he counted himself lucky to have even stepped into the warmth of her radiance, to have known her touch at all. He was man enough to be sustained, not wounded, by those memories.

He was prepared, and by the whim of a story teller far more powerful than Jughead himself, he was there for the inevitable moment.

He hadn't known they'd be in the Blue and Gold together. If he had, he would have gone somewhere else. His latest place to stay had simply fallen through. As for Copper and Gold, he had no idea what had brought them here long after school hours, but in this town there was always something moving the inhabitants around like chess pieces. Expect the unexpected.

If he'd known they'd be there, he wouldn't have intruded, but now that he stood unnoticed behind the half open door, he couldn't choose to leave this unfolding scene. Despite his passing intanglement with Betty, he was still Jughead Jones, observer by nature, the outside man who stood apart and transcribed the story that his peers truly lived.

"Betty, so much has happened this year, so much has changed," Archie softly confided in the dark classroom. 

"I know," she agreed with a stressed sigh. "It's like everything that ever happened our whole lives was just a drop in a bucket and then this year-"

"-the levy breaks," Archie concluded.

They locked eyes in subdued agreement, saying nothing.

"And the scariest part is, it's not even over," Archie told her next. "I don't know if it ever will be. I'm scared that I'll never understand anything again, that things will just keep changing and I'll only ever feel lost and unsure, forever."

"Oh, Archie..." Betty whispered, her voice seeped with sympathy.

"The only thing that doesn't scare me is you, Betty."

Jughead saw the surprise on Betty's face, knew that this was it, the moment things would shift between them forever. Between her and Archie, and by consequence, her and Jughead.

"I know you've changed too, Betty, but unlike everything else you're still recognizable. I look at you and I know you're still the same girl I've always adored. You've just... grown up, become even more incredible, and I'm stunned because I didn't think that was possible."

He looked at her like he was in love with her.

"But if anyone was going to do the impossible, it'd be you, Betty."

She looked at him like she couldn't believe this moment was real.

"It blows my mind how amazing you are," he said in a whisper, eyes drifting down to her lips before returning to her wide blue eyes. No great poetry, but spoken by Archie Andrews, such simple words were imbued with faerie magic. 

Archie closed the distance between their lips, kissing her slow and deep. Even as Jughead's mortal heart broke with the pain he had known was coming, the narrator in him felt perversely satisfied. This was how he'd known it would go, this was what was always supposed to happen; Archie and Betty, together at last.

And it appeared Betty felt the same way. Her hands slipped into Archie's hair and she pulled him in abruptly, kissing him with unrestrained hunger that surprised both Jughead and Archie alike.

Even as Jughead's stomach twisted, he couldn't help feeling proud of her. Go Betty, go, he thought with a smirk. It didn't matter how much it hurt him, he would always cheer her on.

Betty's intensity only continued. She maneuvered a subdued and aroused Archie and shoved him against the wall of the Blue and Gold office, barely letting him escape a gasp before she captured his lips again, claiming them as her own. Archie complied all too easily, excited by the unexpected agression laden in Betty's passion.

And it was unexpected. And incongruous. Jughead felt a stirring of unease. This wasn't lining up. 

Betty slowed the kiss, still deep and hungry, like she was lapping up her last tastes, then broke away. Archie tried to follow but she stopped him with a finger to his lips.

"No, Archie."

Jughead reeled. What was this? 

"Betty? What...?"

"I'm sorry, Archie, I was being selfish. I've wanted to kiss you for so long, I just had to do it once. I needed the closure."

"Closure? But Betty..."

"Archie, you're right, I have changed, and I have grown up. And the truth is, I did it without you. We've barely been in the same world this year-"

"I know, Betty, and I'm sorry-"

"You don't need to be sorry!" Betty exclaimed. "Don't you see? It's actually so okay. You've been figuring out your music and what you want and I've been learning how to stand up for myself and deal with my family. We've each been doing what we needed to do. There's nothing to be sorry for."

"But... you don't want me anymore. I messed up."

"Archie no, don't think that way," Betty said, touching her hand softly to his cheek and looking at him with pained affection.

"I love you, Archie, and I always will. I will always see what is good and beautiful in you, and I will always want you to be happy. I just don't think that us together like that will make us happy, not really. But I'm your friend, and if you're lost and scared I will do my best to help you get through it. I hope you can be happy with that."

Archie stared sadly at the floor, disappointed and stinging from unexpected rejection. But then he met Betty's eyes and nodded, a resilient smile gracing his lips.

"You are too good to me, Betty Cooper," he said with acceptance of her decision.

Betty smiled brightly at him, and-

That was it. For some inexplicable reason, that was the moment Jughead could no longer stand to be there. He turned and rushed down the hallway. What was wrong with him? He could bare to stand there and watch the girl who lit up his life slip into the arms of another man, but he couldn't handle her unexpected rejection of said man? Why? Why was his heart pounding, his vision out of focus?

What is wrong with you, Jughead Jones? he asked himself.

"Jughead?"

He lifted his head in surprise. He was sitting on the floor, back against a wall of lockers. He couldn't remember how he'd gotten to that position, or recall how much time had passed. But now Betty was standing in the hallway with him, her bag over her shoulder, looking like she was headed home for the night.

"What are you doing here, Juggie?"

He just stared at her, words failing him. He could tell her he had nowhere to go. He didn't have to say a word about Archie. But before he could plan a response, the look on his face had already said it all.

"You saw, didn't you?" she asked, suddenly looking panicked and dismayed.

All he could do was nod and hang his head.

"Oh Juggie, Juggie," she gasped, crouching down next to him and clasping a hand each to his knee and shoulder. "I know that must have looked so bad, and I'm so sorry, but I swear it's not what you think. I kissed him, but I never want to do it again. I was saying goodbye, you understand that, right?"

"I know," he told her, his voice hoarse. "I watched you turn him down. You knocked his socks off with that kiss just for your own resolution. Pretty bad ass, Betts," he said with a chuckle.

Betty eyed him with confusion. "Then why do you look so upset?" she asked.

"I don't know," he mumbled. He really didn't, and it was eating him alive.

"Is it... is it because I cheated on you?"

His head shot up again. "What?" he asked flatly, staring at her. 

"By kissing Archie. I only wanted closure, but I still kissed him. Technically that's cheating. Oh my god, Juggie, I'm so sorry." There were tears in her eyes.

"No. No, Betty, you can't cheat on me. Because I'm not your boyfriend. We never said that, we never drew those lines. You're not a cheater, I promise."

He had his hands clasped around the sides of her head. How had they gotten there? He was staring intently into her watery blue eyes, willing those tears to dry.

"You're... you're right..." Betty said, her eyes flickering gently over each feature of his face, boldly drinking him in in a way that made Jughead shiver. "You haven't been my boyfriend, but... I want you to be."

He swallowed deeply and turned away.

"Betty, that's not a good idea." The words were instantly passed his lips. He couldn't allow this. He had to stop it.

"Why not?" She didn't sound mad, or shocked, only curious, like she would really listen to whatever he had to say. How was she- how was she so... so perfect?

"Bad things happen to everything I care about," he told her. "My mom and sister are gone, my dad's a gangbanger, the drive in is nothing but rubble and trash now. I must be some kind of cursed, because everything I try to hold on to gets ruinned. I can't have the same thing happening to you, Betty, I just can't!"

Jughead breathed heavily, surprised by his own raised voice.

Betty said nothing, just contemplated him silently. Then she moved to sit next to him, with her back resting against the same lockers. She stared up at the ceiling and Jughead eyed her nervously, totally at a loss for what she might be thinking.

"I've been thinking a lot lately about how it can hurt so much just being alive," she said.

Jughead gave her a confused look, not having expected those words. What did she mean? What did this have to do with what he'd just told her?

"Yeah?" he prompted her to continue.

"Mm hm," she hummed with a nod. "Sometimes I just hurt, and it hurts so much it feels like someone punched a hole through my chest. It's always there, actually, just sometimes there's something to distract me from it, or sometimes I'm feeling extra strong and can bare it better. But other times I feel so alone and so weak and it hurts so bad I feel like I must be dying.

"And the hurt has just always been there, for so long I can't remember what hurt me in the first place. But I've been thinking a lot about it lately, and I think I've figured it out."

She turned and looked Jughead in the eyes, something so raw and vulnerable in her expression, like she was just barely holding it together. It made Jughead want desperately to kiss her and never stop. But he held himself back to hear the rest of what she had to say.

"I think everyone needs to know what it feels like to be someone else's priority. I think our parents are supposed to do that for us, but too often, they don't. So we drift around hoping that someone else will give us that, will show us what it feels like to be chosen first. But no one actually owes it to us. Our friends, our crushes, the people we date, they all get to make their own choices, and sometimes they have to make hard ones, ones where feelings get hurt. It's this cruel reality, where something we need so badly is also something we can't rightfully demand. You just have to get lucky, to eventually find someone who, for them, it's worthwhile to choose you, again and again. In fact, it would hurt them to not choose you."

Tears were streaming down Jughead's cheeks.

"Juggie, you're not cursed, you haven't ruinned anything. You've just been one of the unlucky ones who goes too long without ever being someone's first priority."

Juggie choked on a small sob.

"I know what that's like. And I know that I want to choose you, Jughead, over and over, no matter what it takes."

Jughead started crying harder, and all he could do was curl into her, hiding his face against her collarbone. She wrapped her arms around his back and held him. 

"It would be so, so easy to choose you, Juggie. And so impossibly difficult not to. That's what I mean when I say I want you to be my boyfriend. It's not about promise rings or a Facebook status update or what anyone else thinks. I just want you to know that I choose you, Jughead, and for you to hopefully choose me back."

Jughead got his last few sniffles out and shifted to lay his ear against her chest so that his mouth wouldn't be muffled.

"So if Archie and I were both drowning and you could only save one-" he began.

Betty burst out with a laugh. "Kind of a grim example, don't you think?"

"Yeah. Okay. Let's say Archie and I both text you... 'Betty, I really need you right now, can you come over?'"

"I respond to Archie, 'I'm so sorry, but my boyfriend really needs me right now. I'll talk to you tomorrow.'"

"Wow," Jughead said, letting that sink in. "What if... a mobster puts a hit out on my head and I have to move to Cuba?"

"Again with the grim examples," Betty commented, her hand stroking Jughead's hair.

"Have you seen our lives?"

"Right," she chuckled. "Okay, I guess I'd be heading to Cuba."

"...now give me one."

"One what?"

"An example, so I can choose you."

Betty's hand stopped in his hair, and she was quiet a moment.

"My mom finds out about us," she began softly. "She tells you that you're not good enough for me, that you'll ruin me, everything that you're afraid deep down is true. Every instinct is telling you that everything will be easier if you leave me, but I'm begging you to stay. What do you do?"

"...Holy shit, Betty."

"I'm serious."

"Of course you are, that couldn't have been more serious. You didn't pull a single punch."

"Juggie..."

"Honestly? I freak out, I brood, I take some time alone. I make you worry. Because I'm so far from perfect and I won't lie and pretend that I am. But... in the end I remember this night, the beautiful things you said that went straight into my soul, and I man up and I choose you, Betty."

"You do?"

"I do," he confirmed. "I may be a lot of things, but I am not in the business of breaking the hearts of Betty Coopers."

"Okay," she said. "Okay," again, like she was still processing it all. She kissed the top of his head and snuggled in closer to him.

They sat and just held each other for awhile, both relieved and yet still working through the nerves of the high emotion talk. But each place their bodies touched was a point of reassurance, of knowing that the other was there with them, and they both delighted in that remarkable and beautiful fact.

"Juggie," Betty said softly after awhile.

"Hmm?" he hummed in response.

"Being with you... it makes me feel like something in my life that has never gotten to go right before, finally is. It makes me feel 90 years old instead of 16, like I've been waiting for this for such a long time."

"I think I know what you mean," he agreed. "And I guess I was wrong, thinking I knew how the story was supposed to go..."

"It's supposed to go just like this," Betty said, tilting his face up and kissing his lips.

Jughead trembled and sighed, returning the kiss with warmth in his chest, his eyelashes fluttering as his eyes rolled back in ecstasy.

Betty and Jughead, together at last.


End file.
